Momentum Grants 2017

Overview

The USG Complete College Georgia Momentum Grants provide early stage funding and support for institutions to initiate and implement high-impact projects aligned with the goals of Complete College Georgia.

The 2017 Momentum Grant is a follow-up to the 2017 Advising Academy that gathered advising teams from across the system to work together to develop institutional plans for addressing Momentum Year elements and outline the role of advising in providing them to each incoming freshman. As stated at the Advising Academy, these grants are intended to be the next stage in planning to produce concrete, actionable steps to address identified challenges.

This CCG Momentum Grant RFP will focus on improvements in advising leading to improved student success and achievement. Successful proposals will address at least one of the following prioritized areas:

Helping students make a "purposeful choice" when selecting a program of study

Assisting students in developing an "academic mindset" that promotes academic success

Clearly sequenced pathways that include in the first year:

A total of 30 credit hours

Nine credit hours in their focus area

Core English and math courses

The primary deliverable to CCG will be an actionable plan or plans to solve Momentum Year challenges identified by CCG and/or the Advising Academy participants. Preference will be given to plans that demonstrate the potential to be scalable to multiple USG institutions and/ or the USG System Office. All plans will be shared throughout the System.

Grant awards will be made in amounts up to $10,000. All USG institutions are eligible and encouraged to submit proposals. Furthermore, proposed projects must demonstrate an ability to be:

SUSTAINABLE: The CCG Momentum Grants are one-time awards. Therefore, it is important that the project can be sustained after the funding period ends.

TRANSFORMATIVE: The project can potentially have a significant impact on a substantial proportion of the students at the institution.

SCALABLE: The project has the ability to be scaled up to other USG institutions.

Description of Awards

Each award will be a one-time sum of a maximum of $10,000 granted to a single institution.

There will be a minimum of five Momentum Grant awards in this RFP process; additional awards will be subject to available funds at the USG.

All USG institutions are eligible and encouraged to submit proposals.

Proposals should focus upon the solution(s) to a specific challenge or closely-related set of challenges and demonstrate a process to pool the resources of the institution to address the issue.

Identify the area of need on your campus and address how this project would address this need.

Define the project’s potential impact on student success and college completion.

Explain the potential lessons learned from the project and the impact the project could have on the institution as well as the USG if it were scaled.

Proposals will be reviewed based upon the information provided above. Selected proposals will be required to submit additional documentation, if not included. These elements include a project plan and project budget. Details on these elements are provided below.

Additional elements for awarded plans:

Project Plan (1 page, maximum)

Describe goals, objectives and deliverables associated with the project, with the ability to show initial results within 6–12 months.

Please include a detailed timeline of the project that includes specific tasks, milestones, resources and personnel associated with the project.

Project Budget and Evaluation (1 page, maximum)

Please provide a projected budget and brief justification for each budget item. Budget items should be directly connected to project advancement.

Provide a brief evaluation plan to assess the outcomes of the project.

Please Note: Budgets will be supported by State funds and therefore institutions spending project money must ensure compliance with State, BOR and institutional policies and procedures. Selected projects may have to submit revisions or clarifications for budgets.

Additional Items

Any additional data tables and graphs to be included in an appendix.

Logistics

Please submit any questions you may have in advance to Lesley Anne Fenton, USG Project Manager.

Proposals must be submitted under signature of the institution’s Vice-President for Academic Affairs. The VPAA may email the proposal to Tristan.Denely@usg.edu.

Proposals must be submitted as a Word document via email to Tristan.Denely@usg.edu by 5pm EST, November 22, 2017.

Follow up questions or interviews may be requested of applicants.

An announcement of grants awarded is expected in December 2017.

Awardees will be required to submit a simple contractual timeline of deliverables with the original or modified proposal serving as the statement of work. Please note that awardees’ successful applications will be made available to all USG institutions. The USG may also request that applicants with promising proposals that were not funded share their ideas with the USG community.